


A Perfect Possible

by Ionaonie



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: Episode Tag, Fluff, Friendship, M/M, Pre-Slash, episode s01e06
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-23
Updated: 2011-12-23
Packaged: 2017-10-27 22:32:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,789
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/300759
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ionaonie/pseuds/Ionaonie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After Garcia points out that Reid may not have found the whistle as funny as Morgan might have thought, Morgan goes to talk to him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Perfect Possible

‘You gave him a whistle?’

Penelope perched on the edge of Morgan’s desk and glared down her glasses at him.

Morgan pushed back on his chair. ‘Sweetness, what are you talking about?’

Penelope couldn’t decide if Morgan really didn’t know what she was talking about or not, but for the moment she was prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt. ‘Reid failed his firearms qualification and you gave him a whistle.’

‘It was a joke.’ By the grin on Morgan’s face he still thought it was funny. For the most part Morgan was surprisingly apt at understanding Reid, but this time it had obviously failed him.

‘I don’t think Reid found it that funny,’ she told him severely.

‘Reid knew I was only playing,’ Morgan told her. ‘He understood that.’

‘Well, Elle didn’t seem to think that Reid found it funny. In fact, she said he seemed quite upset by the whole thing.’

Morgan frowned. ‘He didn’t say anything.’ He sounded concerned, so it was possible that she was getting through to him.

Penelope rolled her eyes. ‘You got a case more or less immediately, remember?’

‘Yeah, but Reid hasn’t been upset by my teasing for nearly two and a half years,’ protested Morgan.

‘For such an intelligent stud-muffin, you sure can be an idiot sometimes.’

‘Garcia, if you have something to say, say it already.’

‘I’m only doing this because I love you both, you know that, right?’ And someone had to keep an eye on the both of them. She also felt it was her duty to give them the odd nudge in the right direction. They were both so different but also managed to be great friends. She didn’t want anything to threaten that.

‘Whatever.’

‘You know how defensive Reid gets on the run up to his qualification test.’

‘Yeah, I know that. I was just showing him that it wasn’t a big deal, that was all.’

‘Teasing him is fine, but not about failing his test. You’re a profiler, Derek, you shouldn’t need me to tell you this.’

Comprehension dawned in Morgan’s eyes. ‘Ah.’

‘Yes, ah.’

‘Sometimes, baby girl, we all need someone to show us the things that are right in front of our faces.’ He stood up and kissed her lightly on the cheek. ‘Do you know where Reid is now?’

She smiled at him. ‘According to JJ, he’s down at the firing range.’

‘Is Hotch with him?’

‘Not this time.’ She shrugged as she stood up. ‘I don’t think he wants to hear the words “front sight, trigger press, follow through” for a while.’

Morgan nodded thoughtfully before grabbing his jacket. The sexy leather one that made Morgan look even more yummy than usual. ‘You’ve been wearing that jacket more often, recently.’

Morgan gave her a wide-eyed stare. ‘Have I?’

She narrowed her eyes at him. ‘There is something you’re not telling me and one of these days I’m going to work it out.’

He laughed. ‘Of this I have no doubt, Beautiful. Just not today.’

‘It’ll be when you least expect it,’ she called after him as he walked away.

\----------

Spencer pulled his ear protection down and sighed as he contemplated his paper target. He was still pulling back on his follow through. He had ended up killing a man because he hadn’t hit where he had been aiming. He still didn’t know how he felt about that, but he did know that he had to be able to shoot where he aimed, because next time killing the unsub may not be an option. So here he was, back in the shooting range, missing his targets again, again and again.

He pulled his ear protection back up, squared his shoulders and raised his gun to try again. And again he missed. There was no one else in the range so Spencer gave in to his frustration and stamped his foot a couple of times, swearing under his breath.

He glared at his gun and then at the target. He was going to do this, even if he had to stay here all night to achieve it. He knew that he should have one of his friends here, but he couldn’t quite bring himself to ask any of them. He knew that everything Hotch had done at the hospital he had had to do and that he hadn’t meant anything he’d said to Reid, but even so, he didn’t feel up to hearing Hotch saying the same words over and over again.

Once again he raised his gun but before he could pull the trigger, a hand wrapped around his. He jumped, swallowing the shriek that welled up in his throat and bumped into the body standing directly behind him.

‘Easy there, genius.’

All the tension drained out of Spencer as he realised it was Morgan standing behind him. For a moment he sagged against Morgan’s chest in relief. Then, realising what he was doing, he stood up again. ‘God, Morgan. You scared me.’

‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to sneak up on you.’

Spencer eased away from Morgan. Checking the gun’s safety was on, he holstered it. ‘What are you doing here?’

‘I thought I’d come down and see if you wanted any pointers.’

‘If that’s just another way of saying you’re here to tease me, you can leave now.’ He crossed his arms, hoping it looked more like he was angry, than insecure and trying to protect himself.

Morgan slumped back against the wall and crossed his arms. ‘Shit, Reid, I didn’t mean to make you feel bad.’ He rubbed his hand over his face and sighed. ‘Garcia said that I might have screwed up.’

‘What do you mean?’ He was more than a little surprised to hear that Morgan and Garcia had been talking about him.

‘When I gave you the whistle, I didn’t do it to be mean, I was trying to show you that it doesn’t matter if you’re qualified or not.’ A small frown crossed his face. ‘Perhaps I didn’t go about it the best way.’

Spencer felt his lips twitch involuntarily. ‘And perhaps I was feeling over sensitive about the whole thing.’

‘Nah, I’m pretty sure I was being a jerk.’

‘Maybe a little bit,’ hedged Spencer. He didn’t really have a problem with what Morgan has said. He had known that his friend had been joking; it was just the material that had been a little bit too raw for him. If only Morgan had waited one day, he probably would have found it amusing.

Morgan grinned at him. ‘So how about I make it up to you?’

‘How?’

Morgan pushed himself off the wall. ‘What about those pointers I was just talking about?’

‘I’ll take all the help I can get.’ Anything to make him pass his re-test next week.

‘So pick up your gun and show me your stance.’

Spencer did as he was told. He jumped when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

‘Damn, Spencer, you need to relax.’

‘Relax?’ Spencer glanced back at Morgan. ‘How do you expect me to do that?’

Morgan grinned at him. ‘Man, if I was as tense as you are, I wouldn’t be able to hit the target either. You have got to relax.’

‘Look, if you can think of a way to make me relax, I’m all for it. I can’t stop thinking about how badly I failed last week and how I’m going to probably fail again in exactly the same way. Will they even let me try again if I fail a second time?’

Morgan squeezed his shoulder before his hand dropped and Spencer immediately missed the warmth. ‘So talk to me.’

‘About what?’

‘Anything you want, Reid. I’m giving you free rein here. All that sci-fi geekery you’re so fond of, give it your best shot.’

‘Ha! Sci-fi geekery. You’re going to totally regret this.’

‘Of that I have no doubt.’ Morgan sounded resigned but he also sounded amused so Spencer wasn’t all that worried about regaling Morgan with random and useless facts about his favourite TV shows and films, or anything else that came to mind.

Spencer brought his arms down since they were beginning to ache but kept his stance. He started talking; he had no idea what he was saying. It was a good thing that he could talk without thinking about what he was saying because if Morgan asked him a question about anything, Spencer would be hard pressed to answer coherently.

He found that he was hyper aware of how Morgan was standing so close to him, watching him. Spencer, if he glanced to his right, could just make out Morgan’s shoulder and the muscles in his arm, bunching, as he had his arms crossed across his chest.

Morgan plucked his gun out of his hands. ‘I’ll give it back, don’t worry.’

Spencer nodded, not sure what Morgan was planning on doing, but trusting him anyway. He carried on talking about everything and anything.

‘So let me get this right,’ said Morgan after a few more minutes, ‘you can list all the ways the Galactica in the original series and the new series are different?’

Reid was pulled out of his contemplation of Morgan’s muscles and it took him a moment to register what Morgan had said. ‘What? Oh, well, yes, I can.’

Morgan frowned as he edged out of Spencer’s view. ‘Why would you want to know something like that?’

Spencer jumped as Morgan put his hands on Spencer’s hips and manhandled him into a slightly different posture.

‘Um, uh...what was the question?’ He really hoped that Morgan assumed that his stammering and nervousness was due to his firearms test and not because of the close proximity of Morgan himself.

Morgan chuckled, low in his chest. ‘Why do you know the different specs of the two Battlestar Galactica’s?’

Spencer frowned. ‘Why wouldn’t I know that?’ He was so busy thinking about Morgan’s question that he didn’t really pay attention to the way Morgan lifted his arms and, bending them slightly, getting him into the right position to shoot, but still without his gun.

‘Because it doesn’t have any practical application,’ replied Morgan. The smirk Spencer couldn’t see was quite audible in Morgan’s voice.

Spencer swallowed, trying to ignore the way his back was pressed up against Morgan’s chest. It was stupid, being this nervous, he knew that. About as stupid as it was the way he kept thinking about Morgan all the time. ‘But neither does knowing football statistics, and yet you know those, don’t you?’

‘Did you just try to suggest to me that football is useless, Reid? Because I don’t think you want to do that.’

Spencer grinned. ‘I don’t remember saying those exact words...’

Morgan laughed low in his ear, his breath tickling Spencer’s neck. ‘Of course you don’t.’

‘But then, I don’t remember not saying those exact words, either.’

Spencer was relieved that Morgan couldn’t see his face because he had no doubt that his face had gone completely red. What was he doing? Was he...was he flirting with his very straight friend?

‘Okay, so I’m going to give you back your gun. I want you to stay like this.’

As soon as Morgan said that, Spencer felt himself tense up. He groaned and resisted the urge to lean back against Morgan in defeat.

‘I thought I told you not to tense up.’ Morgan’s voice was light and teasing so he knew his friend wasn’t mad.

‘This is pointless.’

‘No it’s not. Cut yourself some slack here. It’ll come to you. Mostly you just have to relax.’

‘Don’t you have anything better to do on a Wednesday night than teach me how to shoot properly?’

Spencer felt Morgan shrug. ‘No, not really.’

‘Bet you wouldn’t be saying that if it was a Friday night,’ he muttered.

‘I wouldn’t be so sure about that,’ said Morgan seriously. Before Spencer could ask the other man what he meant, he had recovered and was talking again. ‘So, you haven’t told me yet, why do you know the spec differences?’

‘Because it’s fun.’ Spencer immediately began to feel himself relax again.

‘Fun?’ repeated Morgan, sounding very dubious. ‘Do you, by any chance, know the specs of every spaceship ever employed in a TV show or movie?’

‘Uh, maybe.’

‘You know, sometimes I forget just how much of a geek you are, kid.’ As he spoke he gently pressed Reid’s gun into his hands. ‘Keep talking,’ he murmured.

‘It gave me something to do when I was growing up.’

‘Reid, I hate to break this to you, but the reimaged Battlestar Galactica was made in 2004. Not even you were a teenager back then.’

Spencer frowned. ‘How do you know BSG was remade in 2004? I thought you weren’t into sci-fi.’

‘When have I ever said I don’t like the show? Now, line up the target.’

Morgan’s left hand was resting on his waist and his right was gently curled around Spencer’s wrist.

He sighted the target, making sure he kept on talking. ‘You insinuated-’

‘I insinuated that you’re a crazy person for knowing the specs of the spaceships, not for liking the show. I like the show. I just don’t know every little detail about it.’

‘Well, maybe you would if you didn’t have so many football statistics flying around in your head.’

‘Are you suggesting that I can only think about one thing at a time?’

Spencer laughed but kept his eyes on the target.

‘Now, pull the trigger.’

Spencer did as he was told, but as he went to pull back on his follow through, Morgan stepped closer into his back, effectively stopping him from being able to move. His hand on Spencer’s wrist meant that he was able to stop him from moving his gun too early as well. Spencer looked at the target in surprise as he realised that he had hit the body of the target. It wasn’t a heart shot, but it was on the torso.

‘Hey, look. I did it.’

‘Yes you did. Now, do it again.’

So Reid did. Again and again and again. After eight more shots, Morgan dropped his hand from Spencer’s wrist. After a further fifteen he stepped a fraction away from Spencer’s body. Not long after that he was standing where Hotch usually stood while giving him instructions. He stood there, watching, not saying a word until Spencer decided he was finished and removed his ear protection.

Morgan removed his as well. ‘You see, pretty boy, you can shoot.’

‘So it seems,’ he agreed, holstering his gun. ‘I didn’t really hit the heart once, though.’

‘We can work on that tomorrow, if you want.’

Spencer turned around. ’Really? You don’t mind?’ Because he had thought that this was Morgan’s way of apologising. He hadn’t expected Morgan to offer to give him more lessons. He’d have to be an idiot to say no, though. Or an idiot to say yes. He wasn’t entirely sure which yet.

Morgan rolled his eyes. ‘Of course I don’t mind.’

‘Well, yes, okay then. That would be really very-’

‘Reid,’ Morgan interrupted, ‘you don’t have to thank me. It’s what friends do.’

‘But still, thank you.’

Morgan threw him a sly grin. ‘Hotch is going to be surprised when he next sees you in the shooting range.’

Spencer laughed. ‘He’ll probably think I’m some kind of alien, or something.’ He resisted making a comment about how Morgan's teaching style differed so greatly from Hotch's, if only because he wasn't sure how to bring it up without sounding awkward.

‘Or something,’ agreed Morgan. ‘Come on, kid, let’s go get a drink and then I’ll drop you off at your place.’

‘Umm, you don’t have the bike, do you?’ It made him nervous. He knew all the statistics about motorbike accidents and he didn’t like to think of them in relation to Morgan. It did funny things to his stomach.

‘Would I offer if I did?’ asked Morgan, slinging an arm over Spencer’s thin shoulders and propelling him out of the shooting range.

‘Ah, no?’

‘That’s right. Don’t think I haven’t noticed the evil death glares you’ve been giving my bike for the last few years.’

Spencer blushed. He hadn’t thought Morgan had noticed. He should really have known better, Morgan always noticed more than people gave him credit for.

‘So relax, I have the car today.’

Morgan still had his arm over Spencer’s shoulders, but he didn’t want to complain, so he didn’t. He liked having Morgan this close. It felt dangerous, but it also felt safe.

‘Hey, Morgan?’

‘Yeah?’

‘The whistle thing?’

‘What about it?’

‘It was funny, you know.’

‘Really?’

Spencer grinned. ‘Yeah, really.’


End file.
